Automatic gun



W. B. BARTON.

AUTOMATIC GUN.

APPLICATION FILED NOV. 1. 1918,

1 ,33 5 ,487 Patented Mar. 30, 1920.-

' fll i WWW/AK "J I INVENTOR.

Wz/zdiflfijiflzfm BY M 0% I ATTORNEYS.

WILLARD B. BARTON, 0F PORTLAND, MAINE, ASSIGNOR TO MARLIN-ROCKWELLCORPORATION, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.,

A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

AUTOMATIC GUN.

7 Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar. 30, 1920.

Application filed November 1, 1918. Serial No. 260,653.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLARD B. DAn'roN, a citizen of the United States,residing in the city of Portland, county of Cumberland, and State ofMaine, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in AutomaticGuns, of which the following specification is such a clear, full, andexact description as to enable one skilled in the art to which itappertains to make and use the same.

My invention has to do more particularly with automatic guns of the gasoperated, rotary feed wheel type, such for example as the Colt and theMarlin. Automatic guns of these types are provided with the gas cylinderin communication with the front end of the gun barrel. Within the gascylinder is the piston the rear end of which is known as the slide andwhich extends into the body of the gun and operates the bolt andincidentally the shell extractor and cartridge extractor. A spring isinterposed between the front end of the piston and a shoulder on thebody portion of the gun to return the various parts to firing position.In the body portion of the gun in front of the re ceiver is the feedwheel provided with teeth between which may be held a cartridge. Thefeed wheel is caused to rotate step by step in a clockwise direction bymeans of the spring-pressed ratchet lever pawl carried by the pivotedratchet lever which in turn is oscillated by virtue of the pin and slotconnection between it and the feed lever which is operated by engagementwith suitable lugs on the slide. The wheel is normally prevented frommoving counterclocln wise by means of the feed wheel dog. The cartridgesare carried in a belt which passes through the gun by way of the feedwheel. In operation the feed wheel presents a cartridge in proper placeto be seized by the cartridge extractor. The bolt is moved to the rearand at the same time the cartridge extractor moves rearwardly carryingthe cartridge therewith. At the same time one of the lugs on the slidemoves the feed lever rearwardly which in turn raises the ratchet lever.The ratchet lever pawl recedes into the ratchet lever and slides overthe tooth of the feed Wheel. When the ratchet lever has reached itsuppermost position, the pawl is projected from the lever sufficiently toen gage with a tooth of the feed wheel. As the bolt moves forward, thecartridge is thrown up in front of it and chambered, and the other lugof the slide moves the feed lever forwardly, forcing down the ratchetlever. As the ratchet lever pawl is now in engagement with a tooth ofthe feed wheel, the feed wheel is advanced a single step thus bringinganother cartridge into place to be grasped by the cartridge extractorwhen the bolt is in place.

It sometimes happens that the bolt has been prevented from returning toits locked position, although the slide has returned sufficiently tothrow forward the feed lever which brings about an advancement of thefeed wheel and presents a cartridge in proper position to be extracted,as previously described. When this happens the cartridge extractor isprevented from moving forwardly far enough to engage with the groove ofthe cartridge. The gun Will not fire as the sear has not been disengagedfrom the hammer. The bolt may have been prevented from assuming itslocked position for any one of several reasons. A. cartridge may nothave been perfectly round and when it was inserted in the chamber didnot go in far enough to allow the bolt to assume its locked position, orit may not have been inserted to its full depth because of some residueor foreign matter in the chamber. Since the bolt is prevented fromassuming firing position, the cartridge extractor is also prevented fromengaging with the groove of the cartridge. Under these conditions thegun cannot fire as the sear has not been disengaged from the hammer. Itis then necessary to put the various parts through their cycle ofoperations by means of the charging slide. This will cause an ejectionof the defective cartridge but will not remove the cartridge at the topof the feed wheel and when the bolt goes forward the cartridge willprevent rotation of the feed wheel and consequently prevent locking ofthe bolt due to the fact that the ratchet lever pawl of the ratchetlever, being in engagement with a tooth of the feed wheel, cannot movedownwardly and as the feed lever is in engagement with the ratchet leverit is prevented from going forward and holds back the slide whichoperates the bolt. Sometimes it happens that the explosion of thecartridge did not develop suflicient energy to throw the bolt and theshell extractor back far enough to eject the shell and take the nextcartridge off the carrier and place it in position to be chambered. Thebolt will move forwardly under the action of the slide spring and tendto force the exploded shell back into the chamber at least part way. Thecartridge thzl should have been chambered is still held by the cartridgeextractor and is returned to the feed wheel where the forward partengages a tooth of the feed Wheel and prevents rotation thereof. Thiscartridge will be distorted by being pinched by the feed wheel as it attempts to rotate. By operating the charging slide the exploded shell canbe ejected and the distorted cartridge brought into position to bechambered. Because of its distortion, it cannot be completely chamberedand the bolt is prevented from assuming firing position. Now' if thecharging slide is again operated by the gunner, the distorted cartridgewill be ejected but the cartridge at the top of the feed wheel willremain there as the cartridge extractor has had no opportunity to graspit. Then when the bolt moves forward again, it will be prevented fromassuming its locked position as previously described.

Whenever a cartridge is left in the feed Wheel after it should have beenremoved and prevents a locking of the gun, a feed jam has resulted. Toreduce this jam it has been necessary in the past to release the feedwheel through the medium of the feed throw-ofi' and allow it to rotatecounter clockwise somewhat and then start the belt and the cartridgesthrough the gun again. This amounts to practically reloading the gun andis a very clumsy and inconvenient way of reducing the jam.

The object of my invention is the provi- 'sion of a means whereby thejam of this character can be prevented simply and effectively therebydoing away with the necessity of releasing the feed wheel and runningthe belt back. To accomplish this I provide a means for preventing theratchet lever pawl from operating when a cartridge is in the feed wheelafter it should have been extracted. The action of this means in makingthe ratchet lever pawl inoperative, prevents the engagement of the samewith a tooth of the feed wheel. Consequently the slide and the bolt canreturn to the firing position. Of course no cartridge has been chamberedand so it is impossible to fire the gun, but it can be quickly andeasily manipulated so as to cause a cartridge to be chambered throughthe medium of the charging slide and thus allow the firing of the gun tobe quickly resumed.

My device will always prevent a jam and almost instantly allow the gunto be put in operation again without trouble attendant upon the otherways of reducing the jam.

As automatic guns are being used on airplanes, it is highly desirable tohave means to prevent a am and allow a quick andeasy means for startingthe operation of the gun should it stop firing through conditions abovedescribed.

Referring now to the drawings:

Figure l is a side elevation of the gun itself;

Fig. 2 is a vertical section on the line 2-2 of Fig. 4;

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the feed wheel and ratchet lever pawl withthe jam preventer applied;

Fig. 4 is a section on the line 44 of Fig. 3;

Fig. 5 is a section on the line 5-5 of Fig. 3;

Figs. 6 and- 7 are details; and

Fig. 8 is a perspective view preventer.

In Fig. 1 A represents the gun proper and B the charging slide handle; Dis the opening in the side of the gun to allow the belt and cartridgesto be fed into the gun.

With reference more particularly to Fig. 3, l designates the feed wheelsuitably supported and provided with the teeth 2 and 3 forming betweenthem cradles for the reception of the cartridges. Mounted on the bottomof the body portion of the gun is the spring pressed feed wheel dog 4:,which engages with the teeth 20f the feed wheel in such a way as tonormally allow the wheel to be rotated clockwise and prevent counterclockwise rotation thereof.

Pivotally mounted on the side of the gun in advance of the feed wheel isthe ratchet lever 5 having an elongated slot 6 therein. The end of thelever 5 extending toward the feed wheel, carries the spring pressedratchet lever pawl 7 having the cam surface 8 and the projection '9. lhepawl 7 extends far enough in advance to engage with the teeth 2 of thefeed wheel, and is limited in its outward movement by the stop 10. Thefeed throw-off 11 having the legs 12 and 13, is reciprocatively mountedon the side of the gun in such a way that it can be operated from theexterior of the gun. The fore part of this slide is adapted to engagewith the projection 9 and the leg 13 with the feed wheel dog 4 torelease the feed wheel to allow counter clockwise rotation thereof.

The lever 5 is cut out on the side near the wall of the gun toaccomodate the feed lever 14: pivotally mounted on the wall and providedwith a pin 15 which engages the slot 6.

All the elements heretofore described are old and well known in guns ofthis type. My invention resides inthe element 16, the jam preventer andits use. The jam preventer has the same general shape as the ratchetlever and is pivotally mounted on the ratchet lever pin. It can beapplied to of the jam the any gun of the types for which it is adaptedby simply removing the washer from the ratchet lever pin and putting onthe preventer which is of the same thickness as the washer, in placethereof. It has a top portion 17 having an arm 18 extending obliquelydownward therefrom provided with a cam face 18 and a lug 19 extending atright angles toward the center of the gun. It also has an arm 20 whichextends under the ratchet lever 5 to cause the jam preventer to movedownwardly with the lever. Under certain conditions the two. surfaces 18and 8 engage, resulting in the pawl being forced into the lever 5destroying the engagement between the pawl and the teeth 2 of the feedwheel.

The operation of the device is as follows: Starting with the variousparts of the gun in firing position and the feed belt in place with acartridge G at the top of the feed wheel, the gun is fired and thereloading commences. The bolt goes back, the cartridge extractor movinrearwardly takes with it the cartridge; at the same time the slide rodmoves rearwardly and a lug thereon throws the feed lever 14 from theposition shown in Fig. 2 to the position shown in Fig. 3, causing theratchet lever 5 to rise. The cam surface 8 engages with a tooth 2 butthe pawl recedes into the lever 5 and passes over it. The bolt and slidereturn, the cartridge is chambered and the levers 1 1 and 5 are broughtback to the position shown in Fig. 2. Meanwhile the lower edge of thepawl 7 is in engagement with the top of a tooth 2 and causes theadvancement of the feed wheel one step bringing another cartridge intoposition to be extracted. This is the normal operation and the jampreventer has not been brought into operation. Suppose now, however,that for some reason the cartridge has not been properly extracted fromthe belt. The cycle of operations would be same until the bolt startedon its return path. If the preventer was not present, the gun would jamdue to the fact that the cartridge would prevent the rotation of thefeed wheel which would prevent the operation of the levers 5 and 14holding up the return of the slide due to the engagement of the lug onthe slide with the lever a. With the preventer in place the jam isprevented, since the lug 19 strikes against the cartridge and forces thepreventer down. The surface 18 and 8 contact and the pawl 7 is pushedinto the lever 5. The pawl is now out of engagement with the tooth 2,and the lever 5 can swing down. This allows the slide and the bolt toproceed and assume their proper position. As soon as the lever 5 hasgone down far enough the contact between the preventer and pawl isbroken but the dog will not engage the tooth 2. The gun can not now befired as no cartridge has been chambered, but the extractor has beenallowed to move forwardly far enough to grasp the cartridge. If thecycle of operations is now repeated by manipulating the charging slide,the cartridge will be chambered and the gun will be ready for firingagain.

Thus it is seen that I have provided a device which will absolutelyprevent a feed jam and will allow the gun to be quickly put back intooperation if it has been stopped because of some defect in a cartridge.I

1 claim as my invention:

1. In an automatic gun, a feed wheel, means to rotate the same apredetermined amount at each opening and closing of the breech and meansto render said first means inoperative upon failure of the extractor toremove the cartridge from the feed wheel.

2. In an automatic gun, a rotary member, means including a pawl toadvance said feed member a predetermined distance at each opening andclosing of the breech, and means to retain said pawl out of operatingposition when a cartridge remains in the feed member after it shouldnormally have been removed.

3. In an automatic'gun, a rotary feed member, a lever carrying a pawladapted to engage with the feed member and ad- Vance it a predeterminedamount at each complete operation of the bolt, and means carried by thesaid lever to render the pawl inoperative in case a cartridge has notbeen removed from the feed member after being brought into position forremoval.

4:. In an automatic gun, a rotary feed member, a lever carrying a pawladapted to engage with the feed member and impart to it a step by steprotation at each complete operation of the bolt, and means including anarm to engage with and render the pawl inoperative and a lug to engagewith a cartridge in the feed member.

5. A feeding mechanism including a toothed wheel, a pivotally mountedlever having at its free end a pawl adapted to engage with the saidwheel to impart to it a step by step rotation, and means carried by saidlever to render the said pawl inoperative.

6. An operating mechanism for a feed member comprising a lever providedwith a pawl to engage with said member, and means carried bysaid leverto render said pawl inoperative.

7. An operating mechanism for a feed member comprising a lever providedwith a pawl adapted to engage with said feed member, and means carriedby said lever to render said pawl inoperative including a plate with anarm having a cam surface and a lug extending from said plate.

8. An operating mechanism for a rotary feed member comprising a leverpivotally mounted at one end, a pawl in the other end adapted to engagewith said rotary feed member and a plate carried by said lever includingan arm adapted to engage with the pawl to maintain it in inoperativeposition.

9. An operating mechanism for a rotary feed member comprising a leverpivotally mounted at one end, a pawl in the other end adapted to engagewith said rotary feed member and a plate carried by said lever includingan arm adapted to engage with said pawl to render it inoperative and alug projecting from said plate.

10. In an automatic gun, a rotary feed wheel, operating mechanismtherefor including a lever pivotally mounted at one end and carrying apawl at the otherend adapted to impart to the feed wheel a ste by steprotation, a member associated witli said lever and mounted to oscillatetherewith, said member being provided with a projection extendingbeneath and a plate extending over said lever, an arm on said plateadapted to engage with and render said pawl inoperative and a lugprojecting at right angles from said plate.

WILLARD B. DARTON.

